Day 38 - Transition

Salicas to Aimogasta (45km) - Sunday 25th September


Today was very much a case of getting there. We knew we had an easy day in terms of distance, so allowed ourselves the luxury of a lay in. We stirred at 10am, were vaguely alive by 11am and left near 12! I could blame Alan's front paw who was again playing up, I could blame the absence of shower curtain for helping me flood the room with a good inch of water, I could blame the two litres of beer last night; but no, we were just moseying along enjoying a brilliant lack of urgency, full of the knowledge that 45km was eminently doable.

The ride itself was nothing much to shout about. A long straight road, with very little to distract us or punctuate the monotony of churning the peddles. We chatted, I sang (mostly 90s cheese and physics songs... Enough to make Ant's head really drop!), and after putting the world to rights, we were still only two thirds of the way along this boring road. Times like this we have to remind ourselves how lucky we are to have a flat, straight road. There could have been rippio, there could have been hours of climbs, there could have been a 60km/h head wind; so today's ride really isn't at all bad... We were just seeing it as a transition from one place to the next - just get it done.

There was also the nagging feeling in our minds: Last night we went looking for camping and found a hotel; tonight we would be looking for a hotel... Eeek!

Who knew what this town would bring. OK so it is a slightly larger dot on the map than 'towns' of the past which have turned out to be nothing more than a hut and a cow, and the larger font size does bring us hope, but you just never know.

As we got closer, we passed several agri-industrial estates and the town on the horizon, although large, looked to be mostly warehouses... Eeek!

Another few km and we'd know...

...relief! Two hotels and a hostal to chose from - though the reality was fairly different - we simply stopped at the first hotel we saw. It was pleasant, reasonably priced, clean, even had a tv and air con - crazy! Of course the wi fi didn't work and it turned out to be about 1km outside town, but it felt like luxury! What's more, we had a home by 3pm, so had the whole afternoon to explore (read: Eat, sleep, eat again then sleep) and sample yet another ice cream parlour.

We also discovered (don't ask how!!) that dogs in this town are unexplainably aggravated by Ant's 'crab impression '. It seems walking sideways with snappy hands in the air has the ability to turn even the friendliest pup into a raging loon. And once done, it can't be undone. I guess partly due to the scent memory, partly that word travels in the dog world;  when we next walked into town we found ourselves being hunted by the towns mutts. So much so, we both felt it necessary to carry stones... Just in case! This was a stark contrast to the moderately peaceful first sojourn into town with the cute furballs looking nothing more than fluff and cuddles. Note to selves... Experiment with crab walking in other towns to see if the act scares all K9s or just thus town was over taken by giant crab aliens at some point!

Tomorrow is a huge day - 113km to La Rioja - our final goal before hopping a bus to Mendoza, one step close for the eagerly awaited Chilean lake district (got to get Ant out of the sandy desert and find him some trees and green before he goes mad!).